This war has been raging for three days now…
In the Royal Capital’s command room, maps and battle reports were spread out before Elder Selina, and every message brought more bad news.
The border fortress had fallen, and the Seventh Legion was completely wiped out. The City of Blood Spirits’ defensive line was on the verge of collapse. Three sections of the City of Shadows’ walls had already been lost.
“Elder, you need to rest,” the adjutant beside her said.
“Not necessary. Has the Western Route Army’s supply arrived?” Selina asked.
“It has, but only a third of what was expected. Our transport convoy was ambushed by the enemy along the way. The losses were devastating.”
Hearing this, Selina’s fingers stopped moving over the sand table.
Her face remained expressionless, but her clenched fists betrayed her anger.
“Send word to the Western Route Army. Tighten the defensive line. Abandon the outer positions and concentrate all forces on the second line of defense!”
“But… if we do that… we’ll lose another third of our territory…” the adjutant said worriedly.
“We can take back territory. But if we lose our people, there’s nothing left to reclaim!” Selina slammed the table and shouted.
The adjutant dared not say another word and turned to relay the order.
Afterward, Selina stared fixedly at the sand table until blood vessels appeared in her eyes.
The Holy Grail Order’s troop deployment followed a clear pattern. The Seven Archbishops each led an army and attacked the Blood Clan’s core cities separately.
And their goal was obvious: to dismantle the Blood Clan’s resistance as quickly as possible, then join forces to attack the Royal Capital.
But if she could concentrate superior forces to take out one of their divisions before that happened…
Selina’s hand stopped on a certain point on the map.
It was a small city, located between the City of Shadows and the City of Blood Spirits, currently under siege by the Third Bishop leading twenty thousand troops.
If she could dispatch reinforcements from both cities simultaneously, then launch a pincer attack…
Selina rapidly calculated troop numbers, time, and distance. Every set of figures whirled through her mind at lightning speed.
“Send word. Notify Prince Lisa of the City of Shadows and Prince Vian of the City of Blood Spirits. Attack together tomorrow! Target: the Third Bishop!”
Meanwhile, Lisa was fighting on the city wall.
She drove her short sword through a Holy Warrior’s throat, flicked the blood off the blade, then took a letter from a subordinate and read it. Her expression remained blank as she tucked the letter away.
“Pass the order. We’re preparing to counterattack,” she said.
Then Lisa turned and looked down at the battlefield below the wall.
The bodies of Blood Clan warriors and Order soldiers were piled together. The walls were completely stained dark red with blood. The air reeked of blood and charred flesh, along with the unpleasant smell left behind by Holy Light burns.
‘Damn it…’
Though Lisa’s face remained expressionless, inside she was burning with rage.
Lillian had been turned into an emotionless weapon. Her clansmen were dying under the Holy Grail Order’s blades. Centuries of the family’s hard work had been destroyed in an instant.
She would make these bastards pay. She absolutely would.
Then she leaped off the wall and plunged into the enemy formation.
Shadow Power rapidly transformed into countless black blades, slicing the surrounding Order warriors into shreds of flesh.
“Your Highness the Prince!” the adjutant of the City of Shadows shouted from the wall.
Lisa did not answer him. She kept killing the enemy.
There were no allies around her anymore. She could have used a large-scale magic to clear out these enemies, yet she chose to kill with her own hands. Until her entire body was drenched in enemy blood. But she still didn’t stop.
This usually gentle prince had completely unleashed the negative emotions pent up inside her on this battlefield. In fact, it could be said that she wasn’t killing for victory anymore. She was killing to vent her feelings.
Soon, the battlefield was covered with mangled corpses. Ripping a person in half was even Lisa’s gentlest method at this point.
As she killed, she remembered Lillian as a child. That little girl with pigtails hopping and skipping in front of her.
And that little girl who was always smiling would bring her tea when she was tired, and deliberately try to make her laugh when she wasn’t too happy.
Before she turned Lillian into a Blood Clan member, Lisa had always worn a smile, but she had never truly laughed from the heart.
It wasn’t until Lillian came that this smile-masked prince experienced a rare sense of happiness and… maternal love.
But these bastards had turned Lillian into that thing, and then launched a full-scale invasion of the Blood Clan, causing the Lasombra Clan to lose so much.
The Holy Grail Order was an organization that shouldn’t exist in this world.
She would grind these people to dust! And make their souls scatter!
At that moment, Lisa’s eyes turned pure black. There were no pupils, no whites, only an endless abyss of shadows.
A massive amount of Shadow Power erupted from her body, forming a huge vortex that devoured all the enemies around her.
“Lisa! Calm down first! Have you forgotten! The Lasombra’s Shadow Power is different from ordinary dark magic! It has backlash! And that backlash will kill you!” Vian’s Magic Communication came through just in time.
But Lisa didn’t answer her.
“Lisa! Do you hear me! Stop it right now! If you want to die so badly, I’ll rush over there right now and kill you myself! Then I’ll cut your body into pieces and preserve them in my room!” Vian continued shouting.
The Shadow Power was frantically devouring Lisa from within. She could feel her consciousness fading, but she didn’t want to stop.
And just as she was about to be completely consumed by the Shadow Power, she heard another voice: “Mother, keep going! Don’t let it consume you!”
As it turned out, a daughter’s encouragement was more effective than anything else. It made Lisa snap her eyes wide open.
That voice pulled her back from the brink of being devoured by the shadow backlash.
The Shadow Power slowly subsided.
Lisa knelt on one knee, gasping for air.
“I guess my long-range Mental Magic is still somewhat useful. Good thing I remembered I could still do this…” Vian said with a laugh.
“So it was you… but thank you, Vian.” Lisa picked up her sword again and said softly.
“Uh… yeah! You’re welcome!” Vian’s tone was clearly flustered.
Inside the Domain, the battle between Elia and Lillian had been going on for who knew how long.
In this void without any concept of time, they fought from one side to the other, from areas dense with light particles to the depths where star fragments floated.
By now, Elia’s body was covered with countless wounds. Mainly because Lillian’s speed was many times faster than hers. There were several times when she couldn’t even react before getting slashed.
Of course, Lillian was also injured. Elia’s magic had left a massive burn on her left shoulder, and blood wouldn’t stop flowing from it.
But both of them used Healing Magic to completely heal themselves.
[Eleventh Tier: Heavenly Flame Dance]
[Eleventh Tier: Holy Light Reincarnation Song]
After another wave of magical clashes, both of them flew backward and landed on the ground. They even spat blood at the same time.
“Not bad,” Lillian said as she stood up, her tone still flat.
“Heh, you’re not bad yourself!” Elia played along and returned the compliment.
But the next second, Lillian’s figure vanished.
This time, she didn’t use her sword. She charged straight at Elia. She was too fast. So fast that Elia simply couldn’t dodge in time.
Lillian crashed into her, grabbed her shoulders with both hands, opened her mouth, and bit down on her neck.
Elia’s pupils contracted sharply.
‘Shit! She forgot that Lillian was also a Blood Clan member!’
The fangs of the Blood Clan pierced her skin. The pain lasted only an instant, and then pleasure followed. Basically the same as when Kiz bit her.
But this blood-draining speed far surpassed any time Kiz had fed on her.
Lillian wasn’t tasting the blood. And she certainly wasn’t flirting. She was pillaging. She was draining her dry.
In just a few seconds, Elia felt her vision go dark, her legs go weak. Every symptom of severe blood loss came crashing down on her.
“Let go of me!!!” Using the last of her strength, she grabbed Lillian’s hair, yanked her off, and hurled her away.
But that caused Lillian’s fangs to tear her neck, and a large amount of blood gushed out. Elia quickly used Healing Magic.
‘Damn it. No wonder they say Blood Clan have a natural advantage in close combat. That blood-draining skill was way too insidious. If your will isn’t strong enough, there’s no way to resist that incredibly pleasant feeling. You’d just have to wait to be drained dry.’
But as expected, the Saint’s Healing Magic was authoritative. All the blood loss effects and the pain in her neck disappeared. Her legs weren’t weak anymore.
Lillian flipped through the air a few times and landed steadily.
A trace of Elia’s blood still hung at the corner of her mouth. At the same time, her originally golden eyes had somehow reverted to the Blood Clan’s blood red.
“You almost died just now,” she said.
“Heh, you really don’t hold back at all. Come on!” Elia straightened her body, and Holy Light surged out from within her again.
The next second, they clashed once more.